He was the nephew of Pope Pius IV. He was “the soul of the Council of Trent,” which protected the Catholic Faith in the sixteenth century against the inroads of the Protestant Reformation. Saint Charles Borromeo wrote the following prayer to his Guardian Angel: “My good Angel: I know not when or how I shall die. It is possible I may be carried off suddenly, and that before my last sigh I may be deprived of all intelligence. Yet how many things I would wish to say to God on the threshold of eternity. In the full freedom of my will today, I come to charge you to speak for me at that fearful moment. You will say to Him, then, O my good Angel: That I wish to die in the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in which all the saints since Jesus Christ have died, and out of which there is no salvation….” Saint Charles Borromeo gave Saint Aloysius his first Holy Communion.
Saint Charles Borromeo, by Orazio Borgianni (source)
